When your house seems to be somewhat overflowing with random items you don’t always need but also can’t quite abandon, the obvious step to take might be relocating to a different, larger house. However, this might not be a financially practical option in your particular case.
You could therefore be swayed into treating your existing home’s loft as storage space – but what if it isn’t currently up to the job? Here are just a few things you could do to help make it so.
Install a loft ladder
If you are set to use your loft for storage purposes, you could find yourself going into and out of it quite regularly. So, you should think about permanently installing a loft ladder for your own safety.
It’d be up to you whether you add a loft ladder made of aluminum or wood. Your choice could be driven by which material would look best in your particular home; so, a wooden ladder might not look quite so jarring in your home if it is a period property.
Let there be light – yes, in your loft
Keeping your loft well-illuminated when you are using it would also bode well for your personal safety, not to mention make it easier for you to trace specific items left in the loft.
DIY Doctor advocates loft lighting where a switch for it would be fitted outside the loft itself. This would enable you to easily switch off the lighting on those occasions when you might have departed the loft but accidentally left its lighting on.
Insulate the loft to the recommend standard
What exactly the generally-recommended standard is could depend on where you live. For example, in the UK, government guidelines specify 270mm of glass fiber or quilt insulation in the loft, as the Homebuilding & Renovating website states.
In many instances, it is possible to have this level of insulation fitted by adding 100mm of it between the loft’s joists and another 170mm across its joists.
Have boarding fitted over the loft’s insulation
Crucial though your loft’s insulation can prove for keeping your home sufficiently warm, you could have boarding fitted across that insulation to create valuable floor space on which to store items.
You should, however, be careful what type of loft boarding you choose – as standard loft boarding would squash the insulation and consequently hamper its effectiveness. A raised boarding solution, like loft boarding from Instaloft, would give your loft’s insulation enough room to breathe.
Consider creative ways to store items in your loft
You could be pleasantly surprised by just how many quirky ways you are able to store belongings in your loft – and many of those methods are detailed on the Good Housekeeping website.
They include hanging Christmas wreaths on tension rods, hanging boxes from the ceiling and hooking baskets onto rafters. Meanwhile, by sorting different items into transparent or labeled containers, you can more easily figure out what’s kept in what as and when you need to fetch something specific from the loft.